Before I began having a harder time breathing, when I could not avoid being around smokers, I never gave it any consideration as to why the big stink against legalizing marijuana. Only three times during my life did I ever go on a smoking binge, just to get addicted, and see why people had a hard time kicking the butts. Detox only takes three weeks, and I never had a problem quitting cold-turkey every time. The last time I smoked anything was in the mid-80’s, and never thought anything more about smokers, until after my first respiratory arrest in ’93.

After I recovered, since then I have always tried to avoid smoking environments. When I had an apartment in the mid-90’s and home-care services, I was very clear that workers or vistiors would never light-up in my apartment. Two workers who lit-up in the apartment were flying out the door faster than they could kill their cigarette. Since 2006, after a drug destroyed my lung-function, I’ve been oxygen-dependent full-time until temproary breaks in the past year.

Over the past few years there have been two laws passed to ban smoking. Most of the people here are smokers, and people who can’t smoke anymore. There used to be a smoking room, and it had to be closed because the smoke couldn’t be quarantined and ventilated. After all the complaints I’ve had to make through the years, administration has done their best to safeguard non-smokers from being asphyxiated by smoke. However, in spite of attempts to comply with the smoking ban laws, they soon relax the laws because of the smokers who smoked themselves into this place.

People have asked me about moving to another long-term place, but it’s impossible. Here at least they have improved the situation as much as possible, but I’ve gone past other longterm care places, and noticed there is now a higher ratio of smokers among people with disabilities than here.

In the past few years, I am seeing a smaller smoking population than existed previously.–And it does seem that smoking-cessation programs have had a beneficial effect, on causing more citizens to take better care of their lungs. What can be done for this transition to take place in the Disabled People’s population? I have a hard time seeing people in power-wheelchairs, who don’t smoke.

Mick Jagger’s point for pushing legalizing marijuana, is to see if violence can be reduced. What stands out to me is that the social push we all grew up with to smoke and do drugs, would never have created a climate of violence and killing, if we’d all known from the beginning that we were suckers to build the fortunes of drug companies and tobacco giants.

Personally, I think it would be a better outcome for shutting down the industry, and better education of healthy living. Do I care about the job losses, revenues lost which depend on making people sick, and all the big-bosses unemployed?–They deserve it!

If people want to have a vice, at least drinking doesn’t affect people around you. Your own drinking isn’t giving people around you sclerosis of the liver.–But smoking gives people around you lung cancer, emphyzema and heart-disease, whether it kills the smoker off or not. I get really fed-up with smokers’ rights groups who think their "legislated rights" are a higher priority than my rights I was born with, to breathe clean air.

All the excuses they argue that industrial pollution causes more deaths than smokers, doesn’t change anything.–Smokers are killing off thousands of non-smokers every year, and I’m glad I always remembered that bioethics post at the top, which was first posted in 2002: Medical Marijuana!

People who are terminally ill, and they want to smoke whatever they want, I’ve got no problem with that, if they are in an isolated area away from where non-smokers have to breathe any of it. What most people don’t realize, however, and I had to explain it to people here last night, is that people automatically think that smoke from cigarettes and joints gets so dissipated in the open air outside, that the minute amount which can drift through the air could never affect anybody.–Well, it’s wrong!

Until I’ve been really knocked-out, I would never have believed it myself.–But in all reality, the least distant cluster of smoke which hits me has a definite effect. I really hope that someday people will really understand alot more about the respiratory system, than even health-care workers know. The biggest offenders are hospital workers.

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About Ironsides

I was born in 1951 with Arthrogryposis, developed scoliosis at ten years old, but travelled alot and worked in several countries with a religious cult.
All my adult life I have had to live with others, and after three respiratory-failures I had to move into a long-term care institution.